The Biennale's Best

What works did international art dealers, curators and collectors consider the most impressive at the 53rd Venice Biennale? It was surprising how consistently the same names came up. The U.S. pavilion ranked high, even before it was voted best pavilion of this year. And Elmgreen & Dragset’s “ The Collectors” was another favorite. And everyone was impressed with Francois Pinault’s Punta della Dogana.

Melissa Chiu, director, Asia Society, New York

“Bruce Nauman is fantastic. The show of contemporary art from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, East-West Divan, which is pretty fabulous, is a good introduction to some of the leading artists of the region; and at the New Zealand Pavilion, Frances Upritchard has done a really great site-specific, decorative art, sculptural piece.”

Franca Sozzani, editor, Vogue Italia, Milan

“I liked the Danish and Nordic Pavilions. It was a fantastic idea. I also liked Liam Gillick in the German Pavilion and Fiona Tan in the Dutch Pavilion. There’s good energy and I enjoy being here in this moment. It’s very inspiring because it’s a different kind of attitude, plus we did a big issue of L’Uomo Vogue with artists in their studio.”

Diana Picasso, archivist and granddaughter of Pablo Picasso, New York

“The Punta della Dogana is an incredible place with a great collection. I particularly liked the Maurizio Cattelan installation, with the draped bodies that are sculpted in white marble, and the Cy Twombly paintings.

I love Twombly’s work. I loved Bruce Nauman at the American Pavilion, the installation of the sculptures of the hands—all those bronzes—it was very impressive. I haven’t seen everything yet. In Venice, there’s no past, no present.”

Alessandro Benetton, deputy chairman, Benetton Group, Treviso, Italy

“I was impressed by the Punta della Dogana, not only for the quality of the art but for the architectural intervention, which was extremely well considered. It was done with respect for the past and with a vision for the future.”

Tim Marlow, Head of Exhibitions, White Cube, London:

•“Bruce Nauman, the US pavilion, was my favorite.

•Steve McQueen, British Pavilion

•East-West Divan, art from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan”

Sam Keller, director of the Beyeler Foundation, Basel, former director of Art Basel:

•“Bruce Nauman, Bruce Nauman, Bruce Nauman….he is the master. It’s worth coming just for him.”

•Elmgreen & Dragset; “They don’t only do good work, they understand that in the context of the Biennale, you have to present it in a different way.”

•Steve McQueen: “These painterly images were like a kind of time travel, he took the same place we are all in, the Biennale, and shows us how parallel worlds can be.”

•Pistoletto at the Arsenale; “a great entry”

•Huang Yong Ping, Artiglierie, Arsenale

•Andao Ando and the Dogana; “the building is wonderful, Ando treated it very respectfully, and some of the history it has absorbed has dissolved nicely. I am not so interested in the concept - a lot of the art is cold, but there is a bold contrast between new and old.”

Sir Norman Rosenthal, freelance curator, former Head of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London:

•Bruce Nauman

•Rauschenberg exhibition ‘Gluts’ at the Guggenheim Foundation

•German Pavilion by Liam Gillick, an interesting reflection on the Bauhaus; very precise, simple, elegant

•Steve McQueen: “with all due respect, it was a bit self-indulgent. It is always interesting, I just happened not to like it.”

•Elmgreen & Dragset ‘The Collectors’: “It was ‘art world’, but ‘good art world’, sexy conceptualism, thoughtful and brilliant.”

•Fiona Tan, Netherlands Pavilion – very beautiful

•Lucas Samaras, Greek Pavilion

•Pascale Martin Tayou, the African village installation at the Arsenale; “I had never heard of him, and one is always on the look-out for something.”

•Mona Hatoum exhibition ‘Interior Landscape’: “25 of her very beautiful works which have hardly been shown before.”

James Lindon, director, Pace Wildenstein, New York:

•Lucas Samaras, Greek Pavilion

•Teresa Margolles, Mexican Pavilion; this is a performance piece throwing light on the Mexicans on the north border with the US being killed in the drugs war

•Bruce Nauman, off-site projects in the topological gardens

•Roman Ondák, Czech Republic Pavilion; it is interesting how the Biennale wove through the work of several artists here, and this artist showed us the place we inhabit every two years in a new light

•Steve McQueen did the same thing; it is the ultimate step, to represent your country at the Biennale, and it is very brave to do such a quiet, restrained piece

•Tadao Ando’s Dogana; the volume and proportion of each room are wonderful, with multiple vantage points

•Sigmar Polke’s paintings in the Dogana

Maureen Paley, art dealer, Maureen Paley, London

“I was pleased to see Wolfgang Tillmans in the Making Worlds and I thought that the Roman Ondák’s installation in the Czech Pavilion was very special.”

Shamim Momin, curator, Whitney Museum of Art, New York

“One of the things I liked best was the Mona Hatoum show at Fondazione Querini Stampalia. The thing that particularly struck me was the interventions in the historical house museum, where the works are so subtly integrated that you actually had to look for them. You end up encapsulating that whole context, what’s happening historically there, as well as how it’s changed by these very subtle moments that she inserts. Its unusual to work in spaces in that way. I love our American museums, of course, but the endless labeling of things doesn’t seem to be necessary here in the same way. I think it adds a totally other dimension to be able to walk into a wonderful shrine of bones for minor priests, which I thought was genius, and there was an artwork in there—but you had to find it. It doesn’t scream out to you here it is. There is something about that that really helps integrate it into the history and richness of the culture, which I would like to personally think about curatorially.”

Jeffrey Deitch, art dealer, Deitch Projects, New York

“I was at the opening of Punta della Dogana and thought it was just extraordinary. It’s at the highest level of art, installation, and architecture. It was very inspiring. In the Arsenale, I thought that the Paul Chan work was excellent. He’s put together everything that he has been working on and he’s got it all going. It’s very impressive.”

Rodman Primack, Chairman, London, Phillips de Pury & Company:

•Mona Hatoum exhibition ‘Interior Landscape’

•Teresa Margolles, Mexican Pavilion

•Bruce Nauman

•‘In-Finitum’ at the Fortuny Palace, an exhibition by Axel Vervoordt: “This is a multi-disciplinary approach, where art, science and philosophy meet.”

•Pavel Pepperstein, works on paper at the Russian Pavilion

•Czech Republic Pavilion

Craig Robins, collector and business entrepreneur, Miami:

•John Baldessari Banner on Hotel Bauer: ‘I will not make any more boring art’, (which he took from a film he made in the 1970s)

•Cindy Sherman in Pinault’s Dogana

•Teresa Margolles, Mexican Pavilion: “politics and art are hard to balance, and this does it beautifull.”

•“The Arsenale installation as a whole was incredible – delivered so well on a zero budget.”

•“Incredible Marc Jacobs dress at the Vogue party, worn by a woman called Giovanna”

Mark Rappolt, editor of Art Review

•“Ragnar Kjartansson, ‘The End’, Iceland Pavilion: “The set-up is, that he is in the pavilion for six months, painting life portraits of an Icelandic man in Speedo briefs. The artist is drinking beer, smoking and the detritus is building up around him. The Icelandic band Sigur Ros played at the launch, and water flooded into the palazzo from the acqua alta; the artist’s mother cooked fish stew for all of us, and it was a brilliant atmosphere.”

•Ming Wong, Singapore Pavilion: “This installation was upstairs in the same palace, and here, too, Wong’s mother cooked won ton for the guests. This is what Venice is all about, you wouldn’t ever wander in to any other context where Iceland and Singapore were sharing a space like that. It was hilarious to watch, as the Singaporeans were so neat, serving beer to visitors, and the Icelanders just had a big pile of beer bottles for everyone to serve themselves.”

•Liam Gillick, German Pavilion: “It allowed me to think about what it really means to instal a pavilion – and it had a talking cat sculpture, which is the artist himself.”

•Elke Krytufek, Austria Pavilion: “She had half of the pavilion, and she was essentially ranting about the male architecture of the building, which she never thought would be filled by a woman, and about the insufficient toilet facilities for women at the Giardini….I liked her frustration.”

•Paul Chan, video piece on the Marquis de Sade, Arsenale

•Nathalie Djurberg, International pavilion; this clay-mation (animated clay sculptures) piece has the irresistible combination of being cute and unpleasant in equal measure.”

•Bruce Nauman off-site projects: “Not the US Pavilion which I thought was dreadful. It could have been any other museum show.”

Iwona Blazwick, Director of the Whitechapel gallery, London:

•Roman Ondák, Czech Republic Pavilion: “I was touched by this piece, an exact replica of the invisible park around the Giardini. It has an uncanny quality, you walk in, and think, where is the art, and suddenly you realise it is the garden.”

•Liam Gillick, German Pavilion: “I love the idea of making the pavilion a place of alchemic creativity, where people cook things up. The cat is the artist himself, of course, he sees himself as the cat.”

•Blinky Palermo, International Pavilion: “I really liked the fact that there were a lot of older generation artists throughout the Biennale.”

Bina von Stauffenberg, curator, London:

•Roman Ondák, Czech Republic Pavilion; my first choice, I love its simplicity, the double-take between inside and outside

•“Carlos Garaicoa, Arsenale, a Cuban artist who makes architectural models out of paper • Alberto Baraya, Arsenale, who travels around the world and collects artificial flowers and presents them like exotic exhibits in a botanical museum

•Teresa Margolles, Mexican Pavilion; in Mexico, death is omnipresent, but what has happened in the last two years is unprecedented (in 2007, there were 2,800 deaths, in 2008 more than 5,000 deaths). Outside the palazzo, there are three flags, the European, the Venetian, and the Mexican – the last one is blood-stained. Inside, people, all volunteers, who have lost family and friends in the violence, are sweeping up the fllor, and slowly you realise it is water mixed with blood. There are women, who are embroidering cruel messages on materials, like “You killed my brother, we will kill all of you” – these women are dotted all over Venice, as reminders of this terrible situation”.

Emmanual Perrotin, art dealer, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris

“The new, large painting that Takashi Murakami produced for Francois Pinault at the Palazzo Grassi. It’s a masterpiece. I first saw it in Murakami’s studio in Japan and I was with someone who cried when she saw it.”

Alanna Heiss, director of ArtonAir.org and former director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York

“The Palazzo Grassi is extraordinary and the installation this time is particularly convincing. Piotr Uklanski’s flashing dance floor and photographs of Nazis combine the joy and the terror of life.”

Antonio Honem, art dealer, Sonnabend Gallery, New York

“The three exhibitions of Bruce Nauman are extraordinary. They are not really a retrospective. They are an itinerary through pieces of pieces of different periods and each one leads to another and certain themes keep coming back. It’s quite fascinating and I think it’s the ideal introduction to Nauman’s work.”

Nadine Johnson, publicist, Nadine Johnson Inc., New York

“The Chapman Brothers at Punta della Dogana, the Steve McQueen movie in the British Pavilion, and the very pretty girls and hot boys.”

Matthew Higgs, director White Columns, New York and commissioner, Greek Pavilion, Venice Biennale

“I really like Roman Ondák’s garden installation at the Czech Pavilion. It was a simple gesture, very beautifully pinched. Against the triumphalism of some other pavilions, it’s seemed beautifully modest; but I think it was one of the strongest things I’ve seen.”

Tim Blum, art dealer, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles

“The Punta della Dogana. It’s spectacular, no matter how you slice it up, as architecture. That will be the big argument because then, of course, there’s the art and there is a lot of great art there. Over time, the blending of the two, the art with the building, it will grow and become even better. But right now you cannot walk in there and not focus on the architecture.”

Silvia Karman Cubiñá, director and chief curator, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach

“I was particularly excited about the Thomas Saraceno installation in Making Worlds. I found it to be surprising, awe-inspiring, and really fun and the video portraits by Fiona Tan at the Dutch Pavilion were wondrous.”

Cecilia Dean, editor and co-founder, Visionaire, New York

“The Danish and Nordic Pavilions were really, really fun because it was a whole concept and when it’s taken to another level it becomes performance art and it becomes more interactive, I love that. I schlepped all the way to the Lido Airport for the party and it was so much fun, it was like a giant rave, it was like every cute kid was there and we were all dancing, it was great. That was the party to be at, it was so much fun, it was so youthful and energetic. I loved it. I also thought the German Pavilion was great, Liam Gillick. I thought it was funny that they didn’t have a German artist. I’ve just always assumed that they should have their own countrymen representing them. The Making Worlds show was amazing. There was so much incredible work in it. I liked the Guyton Walker installation and Thomas Saraceno’s installation with string that you had to walk through. I love it when art makes you walk differently or plan your route or somehow impedes you. I find that more enjoyable than looking at something static on a wall.”

Germano Celant, director, Fondazione Prada, Milan

“Steve McQueen makes an important contribution that’s political and critical of the Biennale, plus it’s soft and very elegant and very high quality. It’s a major contribution. Nathalie Djurberg has a great piece in the Making Worlds show, and I don’t just say that because we showed her at Fondazione Prada. One of the best pavilions, which got a lot of buzz, is the Danish and Nordic Pavilion. There’s a story there, and it’s intelligent.”

Ari Marcopoulos, artist and filmmaker, Sonoma, California

“I loved Fiona Tan at the Dutch Pavilion. I laid down on the floor and watched the Marco Polo diary with the contemporary footage and I felt like I took a trip. I think that’s what art should do. It should transport you into another mood or another world. A lot of what I saw was a reaction to trends and that is always a little bit scary, but I did see some pieces that transported me and I was happy about those. John Gerrard’s installation on the island of Certosa was also good. This is my first time in Venice so I have other things to see. It’s a beautiful city.”

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Paul Laster is the editor of Artkrush.com, a contributing editor at Flavorpill.com and Art Asia Pacific, and a contributing writer at Time Out New York and Art in America.

Bettina von Hase is founder/director of the art consultancy Nine AM, and writes about art and culture.